A Foundation For Involvement

Habitat For Humanity Finds First Black Sponsor In Gethsemane Baptist

The Rev. Dwight Riddick sensed he was breaking new ground when he asked his congregation to build a Habitat for Humanity house in the East End community of Newport News eight months ago.

As a member of Habitat's local board of directors, Riddick noticed that most of the churches volunteering with the housing charity were predominantly white congregations from the suburbs.

But Riddick didn't know that his church, Gethsemane Baptist on Chestnut Avenue, would be the first black congregation in all of Hampton Roads to lead a Habitat building project.

``We were not out to make history,'' Riddick said. ``We were out to make a difference.''

Gethsemane Baptist's commitment to raise $40,000 to build a house at 833 27th Street in the East End is good news to Habitat for Humanity International. Many of the 1,354 Habitat affiliates in the United States have struggled to gain black support since the Christian-based housing charity started in Georgia in 1976.

The charity asks civic groups, churches and businesses to donate money and labor to build homes, which are sold to low-income families who pay a no-interest mortgage arranged by Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat for Humanity's own statistics show a stark difference between white and black involvement.

Although 54 percent of the more than 32,000 low-income families who live in Habitat homes in the United States are black, African-American groups make up less than 10 percent of the sponsors of these homes.

Minority families live in all but two of the 35 completed Peninsula Habitat houses.

Locally, black organizations have led two of the 40 Habitat building projects on the Peninsula. Aside from Gethsemane Baptist, Delta Sigma Theta - a sorority of black businesswomen - also sponsored a Habitat house.

It's not that black churches are being selfish. Religious scholars and Habitat officials say the lack of response from the black community has two root causes.

First, many blacks resist Habitat because they think it is a white-run missions organization.

Second, on an institutional level, the African-American church has traditionally carried the heavy burden of providing its own services to the poor rather than relying on outside sources, like Habitat for Humanity, for help.

The local statistics about black sponsorship of Habitat homes aren't as bad as they look, according to Starr Mayer, executive director of Peninsula Habitat for Humanity.

Merely looking at the major sponsors doesn't take into account the smaller efforts black groups have made to support Habitat, Mayer said.

Most Habitat homes have been built by a network of donors rather than a single sponsor. Many black people and businesses have donated time and money to Habitat projects, but they don't get as much publicity as the major sponsors, Mayer said.

Black involvement in Peninsula Habitat for Humanity has been on the upswing during the past three years, Mayer added.

Since Peninsula Habitat's inception in 1985, its board of directors has always been at least one-third black. But recently, more black professionals have joined the board, increasing the scope of awareness within the African-American community.

The current board president, Jerri Hickmann, is black. And Hampton University recently started its own Habitat for Humanity chapter on campus.

``As Habitat has become more of a partner and less of a missionary presence in the community, that's good,'' Mayer said. ``Because we aren't bringing in anything to the black community that's not already there.''

But even taking these factors into account, Mayer concedes that the image most people see at Habitat building homes is white volunteers working in a black neighborhood.

Black involvement in Peninsula Habitat has been less than white involvement , she said.

National Habitat officials have struggled with the same perception, according to the Rev. Clifton Buckrham, a Raleigh minister who recently served as area director of church relations for Habitat for Humanity International.

Buckrham still advises Habitat officials on how to get more black churches involved in building projects. He said many black ministers perceive Habitat as a ``white-run, white-dominated organization.''

``Habitat, in the initials days, made a technical error by going into the African-American community as sort of a Colonial missions organizations,'' said Buckrham, who is black.

``They went in with good intentions, but they went in without seeking the input of the community. ... They were perceived as being liberal do-gooders who want to tell the black folks what to do.''

Habitat has aggressively tried to combat that perception by adding black members to its local boards and asking blacks who already are involved to spread the word in their churches and neighborhoods.

``The response from the black community has been slow in coming,'' Buckrham said.